New York: More than 24 million students in the US will now be able to learn about Sikhism. Two more states have voted in favour of the new social studies norms, which will include Sikhism in their school citric for the first time.
Utah and Mississippi have recently become the 15th and 16th states in the US to include information on Sikhism, Sikh practices and traditions in their social studies syllabus. The new criteria will give 606,000 students in Utah and 457,000 students in Mississippi the opportunity to learn about the Sikh community.
Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world and the community has contributed to American society for more than 125 years in the fields of civil rights, politics, agriculture, engineering and medicine.
Amrik Singh, a member of Sikh community said, “These new standards provide an opportunity for our growing Sikh community in Mississippi to educate our neighbors about the Sikh religion and to better protect and identify Sikh students in the state.”
According to Sikh students, this step is the best way to educate their teachers and classmates about religion in a proper and constitutional way. The move comes after the Sikh Alliance made an initial request at a meeting of the State Board of Education in January this year to include Sikhs in the new norms.
Harman Singh, Sikh Coalition Senior Education Manager, said in a statement that in the coming months and years, the process of implementing local adoption and other inclusive standards will begin.
The Sikh Coalition said it would continue to work closely with the Utah and Mississippi education departments during the process.